Our Logo

Logo's and their significance. What is their purpose and how important is it for a business? If you refer to http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/logo.html, you'll see it defines the word 'logo' as, "Recognizable and distinctive graphic design, stylized name, unique symbol, or other device for identifying an organization. It is affixed, included, or printed on all advertising, buildings, communications, literature, products, stationery, and vehicles. Not to be confused with a brand, which identifies a product or family of products." which in fairness is a solid definition but it feels cold and sterile almost.

Surely a logo has to represent something more than just a graphic or a symbol that has, an almost emotional tie to its organisation? What meaning do these logo's have for their designers? How deep into their creative minds did they have to bury to give birth to such logo's that without a second thought we recognise their meaning immediately. If you saw two golden arches in the shape of an M, we know it represents a fast food restaurant, McDonald's. In the 1960's McDonald's wanted to change their logo but their design consultant and psychologist Louis Cheskin insisted that they left the golden arches. Supposedly, he said customers will unconsciously recognise the logo as “symbolism of a pair of nourishing breasts.” Whether this is true or not, their logo is one of the most recognisable logos in the world. Mercedes Benz, their tristar logo fixed within a unified circle represents their motorised dominance for land, sea and air. It's said that the tristar can be traced back as far as 1870 when Gottlieb Daimler sent his wife a postcard featuring the tristar. Apple's logo of a bitten apple represents the forbidden fruit from the "Tree of knowledge" from the biblical story of Adam and Eve. The bite out of the apple looks like the work of Eve but it was also implemented to give the apple scale, if it wasn't there it could easily be mistaken as a cherry. Amazons logo of a wry smile, if you notice is actually an arrow that starts at A and finishes at Z, representing the wide array of items available from their online service. So it would seem that from nourishing breasts to engineering dominance, logo's generally have a significance and meaning behind them.

Well for us at PARADISE COLOMBIA our logo had to have meaning and significance behind it. It had to be light and not too busy that it becomes a distraction and annoyance on the viewer's eyes, yet within this image it bares important information.

1. So let's begin with the green rolling hills, well they're actually representing Cocora Valley and the gateway to Los Nevados, the mountain on the right is named Morro Gacho, located 3,450 metres above sea level it was regarded sacred by the indigenous people known as the Quimbaya and used for rituals, sacrifices and burials.

Los Nevados is a national natural park located at the heart of 'Eje Cafetero', thanks to the numerous volcanoes, 8 in total, some of which are still active have provided the area with an abundance of soil full of nutrients that gave rise to the coffee cultivation. Without these volcanoes we wouldn't have 'Eje Cafetero' and it's amazing coffee.

2. Is a river that appears to run from Los Nevados, without water there is no life and 'Eje Cafetero' is fortunate to be rich in rainfall, rivers, lakes and waterfalls. Some people think the river in our logo represents Rio Quindío, which would make sense as this river runs from Cocora Valley through the department of Quindío, however, in our logo it represents water, another key element again for coffee production and the flaura and fauna that live in this area we call 'Eje Cafetero'.

3. Represents the mighty wax palm trees, tallest palm trees in the world and native to this part of the country, a national symbol of Colombia. The wax produced by these trees, once used by the indigenous people as part of rituals, later exploited by the early European settlers, felled for the production of candles, farming and religious purposes during Palm Sunday almost caused the extinction of these wonderful trees. Thankfully they are now protected by law and we felt that our logo would not be complete without their presence.

4. Last but not least, 'Eje Cafetero' is known as the coffee triangle of Colombia, so the top of our three palm trees join up to make a triangle representing this coffee zone that is Armenia, Pereira and Manizales.

In summary our logo represents history, geography, culture, meaning and significance to 'Eje Cafetero' They say a picture says a thousand words and that's very true for this picture, our logo that is PARADISE COLOMBIA Packaged Holidays.

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